PC basketball great Marvin Barnes dead at 62

PROVIDENCE - Through all the ups, downs, twists and turns of Marvin Barnes' mercurial life, those closest to him always made sure to say a prayer for their friend.

On Monday those thoughts surfaced again when the Providence College basketball community learned that Barnes, 62, had died at a home in Providence. Friends who had seen Barnes recently say they were very concerned about the health of a man who had battled drug addiction for years. There were no other details available.

Kevin Stacom, who along with Barnes and Ernie DiGregorio formed the engine of PC's greatest-ever team in 1973, said he saw Barnes about 10 days ago at a restaurant and knew his friend was not feeling well.

"He struggled with his demons but he was a great friend," Stacom said. "He was a great talent and a great teammate but most of all he was our friend."

DiGregorio, the North Providence ball-handling wizard who'll be forever linked with the big man from South Providence, couldn't speak when contacted Monday. "I'm shocked and very sad with losing my great friend. Words can't express my sorrow," DiGregorio wrote in a text message.

Funeral plans for Barnes were incomplete as of Monday night.

Barnes grew up on Providence's South Side and is known as the greatest basketball talent the city ever produced. He led Central High to multiple state titles and was the spark that made coach Dave Gavitt's Friar teams light up the brand new Providence Civic Center in 1973 and '74. The 6-foot-9 All-American moved on to a misguided professional career where he mixed superlative play as the ABA's Rookie of the Year in St. Louis with disastrous self-implosion marked by periods of drug use. After playing for five teams in six seasons, Barnes' pro career was over by 1980.

" Marvin is one of the greatest college players to ever play," said Al Skinner, the former University of Rhode Island coach and a fierce rival while a star at the University of Massachusetts. "Ernie was outstanding but Marvin handled all the business in the front court for that team. He could have been one of the top 50 players in NBA history if he had the discipline all great players need to have."

But Barnes also owned a dark side away from the bright lights, one that earned him the nickname "Bad News" or simply "News." That legend of Marvin Barnes began as a teenager in South Providence when he and a group of friends tried to commandeer a city bus. They didn't get very far, mainly because Barnes was wearing his Central letterman's jacket with his name on the chest.

When he arrived at PC, Barnes was an instant hit. After dominating on the freshman team in 1971, he teammed with DiGregorio for two remarkable seasons. In 1972, the sophomore big man averaged 21 points and 15 rebounds for a 21-win team. In a practice leading up to the '72-73 season, Barnes had two teeth loosened by a stray elbow from teammate Larry Ketvirtis. Barnes later confronted Ketvirtis outside Raymond Hall cafeteria and struck him with what Ketvirtis called a tire iron. Barnes disputed that but later pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon and remained on the team.

With the addition of Stacom, the '73 Friars took the city and state on a basketball joy ride that ended with a trip to the Final Four. With DiGregorio and Barnes shining, PC shot out to a double-digit lead over Memphis State but when Barnes twisted his knee snaring a rebound, the Friars' hopes were crushed. Without their big man, PC couldn't keep Memphis off the boards and ended up losing, 98-85.

Barnes earned honorable mention All-America honors as a junior and without Ernie D he exploded as a senior into one of the elite players in the country and led PC to a 28-4 record. He averaged 22 points and 18.7 rebounds a game, a total no college player has eclipsed since.

"I was an 18-year-old and Marvin was a senior and there was nothing like playing with him," said Joe Hassett, a freshman on the 1974 team. "We played one game at St. Bonaventure and we're down one and Marvin is at the free throw line and the place is going crazy. He makes the shots for the win and grabs me and says "those morons actually thought they were going to win?"

Barnes was the second overall pick in the 1974 NBA draft, behind only UCLA's Bill Walton. But Barnes eschewed the NBA for the rival American Basketball Association and showed up for the signing of his $2.5 million contract with the Spirits of St. Louis wearing a construction worker's hard hat. Barnes dominated in the ABA, averaging double figures in scoring (24.1 per game) and rebounding (13.4 per game) in his two years but seemingly made constant news for bizarre behavior. Just a month into his career, he mysteriously left the team and turned up in a Dayton, Ohio, pool hall. He said he was miffed about his new contract.

He eventually returned but the tales had only just begun. There's the one about the Spirits getting set to depart on a flight from Louisville at 8 a.m. that would get into St. Louis at 7:56. After one look at his ticket, Barnes exclaimed "I ain't getting on no time machine," and promptly rented a car for the trip home.

Barnes once missed a flight to Virginia because he overslept. No worries. He chartered a plane instead, arrived at the game in his mink coat and scored 43 points.

But the fast lane caught up with Barnes. In 1976, he was arrested for carrying an unloaded pistol at the Detroit airport. That violated his probation from the Ketvirtis assault and sent him to the ACI in Cranston for 152 days. He moved on to the NBA's Detroit Pistons and three other NBA teams, including 38 games with the Boston Celtics in the 1978-79 season. But by that time Barnes was a shell of himself. He later recounted a game where he sat on the end of the bench with a towel over his head snorting cocaine.

Barnes lived in San Diego, Houston and Virginia for the next 20 years but spent the last dozen or so with family and friends in the Providence area. With the help of the former owners of the Spirits of St. Louis, Barnes ran the Rebound Foundation where he spoke to youth groups about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. PC retired Barnes' jersey in 2008 and he was a frequent visitor to the Friar athletic department.

Yet trouble followed Barnes into his final years, too. In 2007 he was arrested for cocaine possession. In 2012 he was charged with soliciting a 17-year-old for sex at a café in Cranston. Barnes called it "a classic case of getting set up," but the case remained pending and was set to go to trial in R.I. Superior Court this fall.

Barnes' closest friends and former teammates only hope to remember the dynamic big man who was always the life of the party.

"We've all had our ups and downs but Marvin is what he always was, a big kid," said Stacom. "He'll always be our teammate and our friend."

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